11.29.2011

Shiny Diamonds, Like The Eyes Of A Cat

I finally finished something! I feel like this was a little more drawn out than it needed to be, probably because of an irregular work schedule (at my day job). Anyway, my friend Hannah, who is probably the most tireless advocate for animal rights (among other things) that I know, works at Carolina Tiger Rescue and is organizing an art show to benefit the organization. What they do is awesome. Their mission statement:

Vision

Carolina Tiger Rescue is working toward the day when:

wildcats are not owned by individuals as pets

wildcats are not used for entertainment purposes

no trade exists for wildcats or their parts

all wildcats prosper in sustainable, native habitats

Purpose

To achieve our mission, Carolina Tiger Rescue:

rescues wildcats

provides lifelong sanctuary for wildcats

educates the public about the plight of wildcats in captivity and in the wild

conducts non-invasive research to further understand and aid wildcats

advocates for action to maintain wildcats in sustainable native habitats, or when that is not a viable option, for the respectful, humane treatment of them in captivity.

How can you not get behind that? Why not make a donation? I set out to make a new painting themed to the event (though it wasn't a requirement) and made this:I read a little blurb about tigers regarded as part of theChthonicworld because of their ability to see in the dark (in some related reading I saw some of the same associations made with bats and the night because of their night vision) so I decided to do a painting about that. The underworld for the Greeks and Romans was associated with wealth since below the ground is where both mineral wealth was mined and natural wealth (crops!) sprang from. So chthonic deities were associated with wealth and bounty not just death (though the underworld was full of spooky shades). Dis Pater was an early Roman god whose name translated to "wealthy father".

(the one on the right looks like the Crimson Ghost!)

Anywayyyyyyy this was really fun and somewhat challenging to paint especially since it's fairly small and I wanted to tiger to have a lot of hair detailI also realized it's pretty hard to paint crystals without them turning into an accidental Lisa Frank color explosion, but I think I managed to reign it in.

On a slightly related note, I love when I suddenly find out that there's a term for something I think is interesting. I stumbled across this the other night in a wikihole:"Interpretatio graeca is a Latin term for the common tendency of ancient Greek writers to equate foreign divinities to members of their own pantheon. Herodotus, for example, refers to the ancient Egyptian gods Amon, Osiris and Ptah as "Zeus", "Dionysus" and "Hephaestus" , respectively."

There is also "Interpretatio Romana" which refers to the Romans doing the same thing. Neat!

Tomorrow I'll be printing the insert posters for that Des Ark record, so maybe I'll have some photo updates soon.

2 comments:

Thinking about history, it always seemed the height of selfishness for my Christian ancestors to have insisted on the 'there is only one god' theory. The ancient Romans and Greeks not only accepted that the gods of their enemies existed, but seem to have looked for overlaps in the pantheons. Nice to know they had a term for that.

And I agree. I think the flexibility of polytheism in the ancient world (and still today) really shows the true function of religion because different gods fulfill different needs and their ability to pick and choose across cultures depending on what they needed or wanted shows that pretty clearly. You can also look at how different gods rose and fell in popularity as the need for them disappeared or reappeared.